Mohammed Hijab – How to Undermine the Feminist Narrative With One Question

00:00:19 --> 00:00:21

Happy to find you here because

00:00:24 --> 00:00:26

I always like to have conversations with feminists.

00:00:29 --> 00:00:33

Tell me what you mean by what you consider feminism in your mind.

00:00:35 --> 00:00:38

Feminism is equal rights to men and women.

00:00:40 --> 00:00:46

And when you say is equal rights for men or women, you're talking about social, political and economic.

00:00:48 --> 00:01:06

And intersectional feminism, which means everybody, not just white people. Yeah, of course. So you're more on that as a woman in the 60s? Sure. Her name is bell hooks. Do you know what I'm talking about? You if you're into intersectional feminism, you need to research bell hooks. Okay, because she is one of the

00:01:08 --> 00:01:15

leading. She's actually I think she's still alive. But she has written many words on this topic. Because, as you know,

00:01:16 --> 00:01:23

feminism in the beginning, in the first wave times was racist. Yes.

00:01:24 --> 00:01:25

Okay.

00:01:27 --> 00:01:43

Come on. And it was really only about, you know, equal pay, which doesn't say a lot about women who have three jobs or can't find a job or brown black different people. And it was geared towards white, middle class women.

00:01:45 --> 00:01:53

Yeah, not only that, but in the first wave feminism, you have people like Emily Stanton, and Rebecca

00:01:55 --> 00:02:24

Latimer, who, I think she was the first senator in this country, to become a woman senator. And she openly in her works. I've read in primary source materials that she was calling for the lynching of black people at a time. And the reason why is that her argument for women's universal suffrage at that time was that we should not allow black people to get the vote before us white women.

00:02:25 --> 00:02:47

Now one of the is still struggling with nonsense like that right now. Now, one of the issues I have with feminism is this. And I think this carries on until this day, and I'll tell you what I mean by this, right. The feminist narrative seems to suggest that there has been a systematic oppression of women by men. Sure you accept that? Yeah. Almost every work that I've read, in terms of feminist literature,

00:02:48 --> 00:03:11

has this narrative, this meta narrative, if you like, presupposed almost, yeah. Now there are issues with that layers of problems I'll get doesn't account for women doing the same thing to other women. Perfect. Yes. It doesn't account for women doing the same thing to other women, but more severely, it doesn't account for women doing the same thing to other men. I'll tell you what I mean by that, okay.

00:03:13 --> 00:03:58

Okay. Now, you in the beginning of this conversation, we talked about a problem with just defining feminism through the lenses of the white woman, right? You accept that slavery happened in this country? Right. Okay. And it was racial type slavery to black people. Now, if I were to ask you in this country, who was lower down on the socio economic ladder, was it women or black people at that time? Black men, right? Black men, black women, black children? No problem. Yeah. So could we say that black men were being oppressed by white women? Absolutely. There you have it. So already the meta narrative of white woman being oppressed systematically throughout history Sure. by men we're

00:03:58 --> 00:04:32

not even accounting for you know, transgender women you know, and that's another issue I want. I want to put I want to asterik that I want to put that to the side you remember you said this because it's an interesting conversation can have on transgenders. Yeah. Oh, it's it's a huge thing is a huge thing. And there's a difference between feminism difference of opinion. Yeah, on this matter. Absolutely. Right. And I would love to hear your perspective on it was on a transgender TV reality show about my stepmother and she was used to be my stepfather and now she's my stepmother. So I am definitely pro trans. Okay, perfect. That's what we have a discussion. It's really interesting.

00:04:32 --> 00:04:37

What, because here's the thing, right? Let me tell you what position I'm coming from. Okay.